THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 

GIFT  OF 

Richard  Petrie 


THE  TALE  OF 
BROWNIE  BEAVER 


SLEEP-Y-TIME  TALES 

BY 

ARTHUR  SCOTT  BAILEY 

THE  TALE  OF  CUFFY  BEAR 
THE  TALE  OF  FRISKY 

SQUIRREL 

THE  TALE  OF  TOMMY  Fox 
THE  TALE  OF  FATTY  COON 
THE  TALE  OF  BILLY  WOOD- 
CHUCK 

THE  TALE  OF  JIMMY  RABBIT 
THE  TALE  OF  PETER  MINK 
THE  TALE  OF  SANDY  CHIP- 
MUNK 
THE  TALE  OF  BROWNIE 

B  E  AV  E  R 

THE  TALE  OF  PADDY  MUSK- 
RAT 


Mr.  Frog  Had  Been  Hiding  Among  the  Lily-pads" 


SLEEPY-TIME   TALES 

THE  TALE  OF 

BROWNIE 
BEAVER 

BY 

ARTHUR  SCOTT  BAILEY 


ILLUSTRATED  BY 

HARRY  L.  SMITH 


NEW  YORK 

GROSSET   &    DUNLAP 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright,  1916,  by 
GROSSET  &  DUNLAP 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I  A  QUEER  PLACE  TO  LIVE    .  9 

II  How  TO  FELL  A  TREE    .    .  15 

III  STICKS  AND  MUD    ....  19 

IV  THE  FRESHET 24 

V  BROWNIE  SAVES  THE  DAM    .  29 

VI  A  HAPPY  THOUGHT    ...  35 

VII  A  NEWFANGLED  NEWSPAPER  41 

VIII  MR.  CROW  Is  UPSET    ...  48 

IX  THE  SIGN  ON  THE  TREE    .    .  54 

X  A  HOLIDAY 59 

XI  BAD   NEWS 65 

XII  GRANDADDY  BEAVER  THINKS  70 

XIII  A  LUCKY  FIND 74 

XIV  WAS  IT  A  GUN?  80 


905341 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  pAGE 

XV  JASPER  JAY'S  STORY    ...    85 

XVI  LOOKING  PLEASANT    ...    91 

XVII  BROWNIE  ESCAPES   ....    95 

XVIII  MR.  FROG'S  QUESTION     .    .    99 

XIX  THE  NEW  SUIT  ,  105 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

MR.  FROG  HAD  BEEN  HIDING  AMONG 
THE  LILY-PADS  .  .  .  Frontispiece 

PAGE 

BROWNIE  BEAVER  RETURNED  TO  His 
WOOD-CUTTING 22 

MR.  CROW  CALLED  DOWN  THE  CHIM- 
NEY   42 

BROWNIE  BEAVER  TOOK  UP  THE  VOTES    60 

THE  CHAIN  CAUGHT  ON  A  BUSH  AND 
TRIPPED  HIM 76 

BROWNIE  TRIED  TO  PUSH  THE  TREE 
AWAY  FROM  HIM  96 


THE  TALE  OF 
BROWNIE  BEAVER 

i 

A  QUEER  PLACE  TO  LIVE 

THE  village  near  one  end  of  Pleasant  Val- 
ley where  Farmer  Green  often  went  to  sell 
butter  and  eggs  was  not  the  only  village 
to  be  seen  from  Blue  Mountain.  There 
was  another  which  Farmer  Green  seldom 
visited,  because  it  lay  beyond  the  moun- 
tain and  was  a  long  distance  from  his 
house.  Though  he  owned  the  land  where 
it  stood,  those  that  lived  there  thought 
they  had  every  right  to  stay  there  as  long 
as  they  pleased,  without  being  disturbed. 


10  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

It  was  in  this  village  that  Brownie 
Beaver  and  his  neighbors  lived.  It  was  a 
different  sort  of  town,  too,  from  the  one 
where  Farmer  Green  went  each  week. 
Over  beyond  Blue  Mountain  all  the  houses 
were  built  in  a  pond.  And  all  their  doors 
were  under  water.  But  nobody  minded 
that  because — like  Brownie  Beaver — ev- 
erybody that  dwelt  there  was  a  fine  swim- 
mer. 

Years  and  years  before  Brownie's  time 
his  forefathers  had  come  there,  and  find- 
ing that  there  were  many  trees  in  the 
neighborhood  with  the  sort  of  bark  they 
liked  to  eat — such  as  poplars,  willows  and 
box  elders — they  had  decided  that  it  was 
a  good  place  to  live.  There  was  a  small 
stream,  too,  which  was  really  the  begin- 
ning of  Swift  River.  And  by  damming  it 
those  old  settlers  made  a  pond  in  which 
they  could  build  their  houses. 


A  QUEER  PLACE  TO  LIVE    11 

They  had  ideas  of  their  own  as  to  what 
a  house  should  be  like — and  very  good 
ideas  they  were — though  you,  perhaps, 
might  not  care  for  them  at  all.  They 
wanted  their  houses  to  be  surrounded  by 
water,  because  they  thought  they  were 
safer  when  built  in  that  manner.  And 
they  always  insisted  that  a  door  leading 
into  a  house  should  be  far  beneath  the  sur- 
face of  the  water,  for  they  believed  that 
that  made  a  house  safer  too. 

To  you  such  an  idea  may  seem  very 
strange.  But  if  you  were  chased  by  an 
enemy  you  might  be  glad  to  be  able  to 
swim  under  water,  down  to  the  bottom  of 
a  pond,  and  slip  inside  a  door  which  led 
to  a  winding  hall,  which  in  its  turn  led 
upwards  into  your  house. 

Of  course,  your  enemy  might  be  able  to 
swim  as  well  as  you.  But  maybe  he  would 
think  twice — or  even  three  times — before 


12  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

he  went  prowling  through  your  crooked 
hall.  For  if  you  had  enormous,  strong, 
sharp  teeth — with  which  you  could  gnaw 
right  through  a  tree — he  would  not  care  to 
have  you  seize  him  as  he  poked  his  head 
around  a  corner  in  a  dark  passage  of  a 
strange  house. 

It  was  in  a  house  of  that  kind  that 
Brownie  Beaver  lived.  And  he  built  it 
himself,  because  he  said  he  would  rather 
have  a  neat,  new  house  than  one  of  the 
big,  old  dwellings  that  had  been  built  many 
years  before,  when  his  great-great-grand- 
father had  helped  throw  the  dam  across 
the  stream. 

The  dam  was  there  still.  It  was  so  old 
that  trees  were  growing  on  it.  And  there 
was  an  odd  thing  about  it:  it  was  never 
finished.  Though  Brownie  Beaver  was  a 
young  chap,  he  worked  on  the  dam  some- 
times, like  all  his  neighbors.  You  see,  the 


A  QUEER  PLACE  TO  LIVE    13 

villagers  kept  making  the  dam  wider. 
And  since  it  was  built  of  sticks  and  mud, 
the  water  sometimes  washed  bits  of  it 
away ;  so  it  had  to  be  kept  in  repair. 

If  Brownie  Beaver  and  his  friends  had 
neglected  their  dam,  they  would  have 
waked  up  some  day  and  found  that  their 
pond  was  empty;  and  without  any  water 
to  hide  their  doorways  they  would  have 
been  safe  no  longer. 

They  would  have  had  no  place,  either, 
to  store  their  winter's  food.  For  they 
were  in  the  habit  of  cutting  down  trees 
and  saving  the  bark  and  branches  too,  in 
order  to  have  plenty  to  eat  when  cold 
weather  came  and  the  ice  closed  their 
pond. 

Some  of  their  food  they  carried  into 
their  houses  through  a  straight  hall  which 
was  made  for  that  very  purpose.  And 
some  of  the  branches  they  fastened  under 


14  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

water,  near  the  dam.  It  was  just  like  put- 
ting green  things  into  a  refrigerator,  so 
they  will  keep. 

Now  you  see  why  Brownie  Beaver 
would  no  more  have  thought  of  building 
his  house  on  dry  land  than  you  would 
think  of  building  one  in  a  pond.  Every- 
body likes  his  own  way  best.  And  it  never 
once  occurred  to  Brownie  Beaver  that  his 
way  was  the  least  bit  strange. 

Perhaps  it  was  because  his  family  had 
always  lived  in  that  fashion. 


II 

HOW  TO  FELL  A  TREE 

BROWNIE  BEAVER  could  do  many  things 
that  other  forest-people  (except  his  own 
relations)  were  not  able  to  do  at  all.  For 
instance,  cutting  down  a  tree  was  some- 
thing that  nobody  but  one  of  the  Beaver 
family  would  think  of  attempting.  But 
as  for  Brownie  Beaver — if  he  ever  saw  a 
tree  that  he  wanted  to  cut  down  he  set  to 
work  at  once,  without  even  going  home  to 
get  any  tools.  And  the  reason  for  that  was 
that  he  always  had  his  tools  with  him.  For 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  he  used  his  teeth 
to  do  all  his  wood-cutting. 

The  first  thing  to  be  done  when  you  set 

15 


16  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

out  to  fell  a  tree  with  your  teeth  is  to  strip 
off  the  bark  around  the  bottom  of  the 
trunk,  so  that  a  white  band  encircles  it. 
At  least,  that  was  the  way  Brownie  Beaver 
always  began.  And  no  doubt  he  knew 
what  he  was  about. 

After  he  had  removed  the  band  of  bark 
Brownie  began  to  gnaw  away  chips  of 
wood,  where  the  white  showed.  And  as 
he  gnawed,  he  slowly  sidled  round  and 
round  the  tree,  until  at  last  only  the  heart 
of  the  tree  was  left  to  keep  the  tree  from 
toppling  over. 

Then  Brownie  Beaver  would  stop  his 
gnawing  and  look  all  about,  to  pick  out  a 
place  where  he  wanted  the  tree  to  fall. 
And  as  soon  as  Brownie  had  made  up  his 
mind  about  that,  he  quickly  gnawed  a  few 
more  chips  out  of  the  heart  of  the  tree  on 
the  side  toward  the  spot  where  he  intended 
it  to  come  toppling  down  upon  the  ground. 


HOW  TO  FELL  A  TREE        17 

Brownie  Beaver  would  not  have  to  gnaw 
long  before  the  tree  would  begin  to  lean. 
All  the  time  it  leaned  more  and  more.  And 
the  further  over  it  sagged,  the  faster  it 
tipped.  Luckily,  Brownie  Beaver  al- 
ways knew  just  the  right  moment  to  jump 
out  of  the  way  before  the  tree  fell. 

If  you  had  ever  seen  him  you  might  have 
thought  he  was  frightened,  because  he 
never  failed  to  run  away  and  hide  as  the 
tree  crashed  down  with  a  sound  almost 
like  thunder. 

But  Brownie  was  not  at  all  frightened. 
He  was  merely  careful.  Knowing  what  a 
loud  noise  the  falling  tree  would  make, 
and  that  it  might  lead  a  man  (or  some 
other  enemy)  to  come  prowling  around,  to 
see  what  had  happened,  Brownie  used  to 
stay  hidden  until  he  felt  quite  sure  that 
no  one  was  going  to  trouble  him. 

You  can  understand  that  waiting,  as  he 


18  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

did,  was  no  easy  matter  when  you  stop  to 
remember  that  one  of  Brownie's  reasons 
for  cutting  down  a  tree  was  that  he  wanted 
to  eat  the  tender  bark  to  be  found  in  the 
tree-top.  It  was  exactly  like  knowing 
your  dinner  was  on  the  table,  all  ready  for 
you,  and  having  to  hide  in  some  dark  cor- 
ner for  half  an  hour,  before  going  into 
the  dining-room.  You  know  how  hungry 
you  would  get,  if  you  had  to  do  that. 

Well,  Brownie  Beaver  used  to  get  just 
as  hungry  as  any  little  boy  or  girl.  How 
lie  did  tear  at  the  bark,  when  he  finally 
began  to  eat !  And  how  full  he  stuffed  his 
mouth!  And  how  he  did  enjoy  his  meal! 
But  everybody  will  admit  that  he  had  a 
right  to  enjoy  his  dinner,  for  he  certainly 
worked  hard  enough  to  get  it. 


Ill 

STICKS  AND  MUD 

LIKE  the  dam  that  held  back  the  water  to 
form  the  pond  where  Brownie  Beaver 
lived,  Brownie 's  house  was  made  of  sticks 
and  mud.  He  cut  the  sticks  himself,  from 
trees  that  grew  near  the  bank  of  the  pond ; 
and  after  dragging  and  pushing  them  to 
the  water's  edge  he  swam  with  them,  with- 
out much  trouble,  to  the  center  of  the 
pond,  where  he  wished  to  build  his  house. 
Of  course,  the  sticks  floated  in  the  water ; 
so  Brownie  found  that  part  of  his  work  to 
be  quite  easy. 

He  had  chosen  that  spot  in  the  center  of 
the  pond  because  there  was  something  a 

19 


20  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

good  deal  like  an  island  there — only  it  did 
not  rise  quite  out  of  the  water.  A  good, 
firm  place  on  which  to  set  his  house — 
Brownie  Beaver  considered  it. 

While  he  was  building  his  house 
Brownie  gathered  his  winter's  food  at  the 
same  time.  Anyone  might  think  he  would 
have  found  it  difficult  to  do  two  things  at 
once  like  that.  But  while  he  was  cutting 
sticks  to  build  his  new  house  it  was  no 
great  trouble  to  peel  the  bark  off  them. 
The  bark,  you  know,  was  what  Brownie 
Beaver  always  ate.  And  when  he  cut 
sticks  for  his  house  there  was  only  one 
thing  about  which  he  had  to  be  careful; 
he  had  to  be  particular  to  use  only  certain 
kinds  of  wood.  Poplar,  cottonwood,  or 
willow;  birch,  elm,  box  elder  or  aspen — 
those  were  the  trees  which  bore  bark  that 
he  liked.  But  if  he  had  cut  down  a  hickory 
or  an  ash  or  an  oak  tree  he  wouldn't  have 


STICKS  AND  MUD  21 

been  able  to  get  any  food  from  them  at  all 
because  the  bark  was  not  the  sort  he  cared 
for.  That  was  lucky,  in  a  way,  because  the 
wood  of  those  trees  was  very  hard  and 
Brownie  would  have  had  much  more  work 
cutting  them  down. 

A  good  many  of  Brownie  Beaver 's 
neighbors  thought  he  was  foolish  to  go  to 
the  trouble  of  building  a  new  house,  when 
there  were  old  ones  to  be  had.  And  there 
was  a  lazy  fellow  called  Tired  Tim  who 
laughed  openly  at  Brownie. 

"When  you're  older  you'll  know  better 
than  to  work  like  that,"  Tired  Tim  told 
him.  ' '  Why  don 't  you  do  the  way  I  did  ? ' ' 
he  asked.  "I  dug  a  tunnel  in  the  bank  of 
the  pond;  and  it's  a  good  enough  house 
for  anybody.  It's  much  easier  than  build- 
ing a  house  of  sticks  and  mud." 

But  Brownie  told  Tired  Tim  that  he 
didn't  care  to  live  in  a  hole  in  the  bank. 


22  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

"  Nobody  but  a  very  lazy  person  would 
be  willing  to  have  a  house  like  that," 
Brownie  said. 

Tired  Tim  only  laughed  all  the  harden 

"Old  Grandaddy  Beaver  has  been  talk- 
ing to  you,"  he  remarked.  "I  saw  him 
taking  you  over  to  the  dam  day  before  yes- 
terday and  telling  you  where  to  work  on 
it.  Of  course,  that's  all  right  if  you're 
willing  to  work  for  the  whole  village.  But 
I  say,  let  others  do  the  work !  As  for  me, 
IVe  never  put  a  single  stick  nor  a  single 
armful  of  mud  on  that  dam;  and  what's 
more,  I  never  intend  to,  either. 

"My  tunnel  in  the  bank  suits  me  very 
well.  Of  course,  it  may  not  be  so  airy  in 
summer  as  a  house  such  as  you're  making 
for  yourself.  But  I  don 't  live  in  my  house 
in  summer.  So  what's  the  difference  to 
me?  In  summer  I  go  up  the  stream,  or 
down — just  as  it  suits  me — and  I  see  some- 


STICKS  AND  MUD  23 

thing  of  the  world  and  have  a  fine  time. 
There's  nothing  like  travel,  you  know,  to 
broaden  one,"  said  Tired  Tim. 

Brownie  Beaver  stopped  just  a  moment 
and  looked  at  the  lazy  fellow.  He  was 
certainly  broad  enough,  Brownie  thought. 
He  was  so  fat  that  his  sides  stuck  far  out. 
But  it  was  no  wonder — for  he  never  did 
any  work. 

"You'd  better  take  my  advice,"  Tired 
Tim  told  Brownie. 

But  Brownie  Beaver  had  returned  to 
his  wood-cutting.  He  didn't  even  stop  to 
answer.  To  him,  working  was  just  fun. 
And  building  a  fine  house  was  as  good  as 
any  game. 


IV 
THE  FRESHET 

THE  rain  had  fallen  steadily  for  two  days 
and  two  nights — not  just  a  gentle  drizzle, 
but  a  heavy  downpour. 

For  some  time  it  did  not  in  the  least  dis- 
turb Brownie  Beaver  and  his  neighbors — 
that  is  to  say,  all  but  one  of  them.  For 
there  was  a  very  old  gentleman  in  the  vil- 
lage known  as  Grandaddy  Beaver  who 
began  to  worry  almost  as  soon  as  it  began 
to  rain. 

"We're  a-going  to  have  a  freshet,"  he 
said  to  everybody  he  met.  "I've  seen  'em 
start  many  a  time  and  I  can  always  tell  a 
freshet  almost  as  soon  as  I  see  it  coming." 

24 


Brownie  Beaver  Returned  to  His  Wood-cutting 


THE  FRESHET  25 

Grandaddy  Beaver's  friends  paid  no 
heed  to  his  warning.  And  some  of  them 
were  so  unkind  as  to  laugh  when  the  old 
gentleman  crawled  on  top  of  his  house  and 
began  to  mend  it. 

"You  young  folks  can  poke  fun  at  me  if 
you  want  to,"  said  Grandaddy  Beaver, 
"but  I'm  a-going  right  ahead  and  make 
my  house  as  strong  as  I  can.  For  when 
the  freshet  gets  here  I  don't  want  my  home 
washed  away." 

All  day  long  people  would  stop  to  watch 
the  old  fellow  at  work  upon  his  roof.  And 
everybody  thought  it  was  a  great  joke — 
until  the  second  day  came  and  everybody 
noticed  that  it  was  raining  just  as  hard 
as  ever. 

But  no  one  except  Grandaddy  Beaver 
had  ever  heard  of  a  freshet  at  that  time  of 
year.  So  even  then  nobody  else  went  to 
work  on  his  house,  though  some  people  did 


26  BROWNIE  BEAYEE 

stop  smiling.    A  freshet,  you  know,  is  a 
serious  thing. 

As  the  second  day  passed,  the  rain 
seemed  to  fall  harder.  And  still  Gran- 
daddy  Beaver  kept  putting  new  sticks  on 
the  roof  of  his  house  and  plastering  mud 
over  them.  And  at  last  Brownie  Beaver 
began  to  think  that  perhaps  the  old  gentle- 
man was  right,  after  all,  and  that  maybe 
everybody  else  was  wrong. 

So  Brownie  went  home  and  set  to  work. 
And  all  his  neighbors  at  once  began  to 
smile  at.  him. 

But  Brownie  Beaver  didn't  mind  that. 

1 1  My  roof  needed  mending,  anyhow, ' '  he 

said.    "And  if  we  should  have  a  freshet, 

111  be  ready  for  it.    And  if  we  don't  have 

one,  there'll  be  no  harm  done." 

Now,  all  this  time  the  water  had  been 
rising  slowly.  But  that  was  no  more  than 
everyone  expected,  since  it  was  raining 


THE  FRESHET  27 

so  hard.  But  when  the  second  night  came, 
the  water  began  to  rise  very  fast.  It  rose 
so  quickly  that  several  families  found 
their  bedroom  floors  under  water  almost 
before  they  knew  it. 

Then  old  Grandaddy  Beaver  went 
through  the  village  and  stopped  at  every 
door. 

1  'What  do  you  think  about  it  now?"  he 
asked.  "Is  it  a  freshet  or  isn't  if?" 

In  the  houses  where  the  water  had 
climbed  above  the  bedroom  floors  the  peo- 
ple all  agreed  that  it  was  a  freshet  and 
that  Grandaddy  Beaver  had  been  right  all 
the  time.  But  there  were  still  plenty  of 
people  who  thought  the  old  gentleman  was 
mistaken. 

"The  water  won't  come  any  higher," 
they  said.  "It  never  has,  at  this  time  of 
year."  But  they  looked  a  bit  worried,  in 
spite  of  what  they  said. 


28  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

"It's  a-going  to  be  the  worst  freshet 
that's  happened  since  you  were  born," 
their  caller  croaked.  "You  mark  my 
words!" 

When  he  came  to  Brownie  Beaver's 
house  Grandaddy  found  that  there  was 
one  person,  at  least,  that  had  taken  his  ad- 
vice. 

"I  see  you're  all  ready  for  the  freshet !" 
the  old  gentleman  remarked.  "They 
laughed  at  me;  but  I  was  right,"  he  said. 

"They  laughed  at  me,  too,"  Brownie 
Beaver  told  him. 

"There's  nobody  in  this  village  that'll 
laugh  again  to-night,"  Grandaddy  said 
very  solemnly,  "for  there's  a-going  to  be 
a  flood  before  morning." 


BROWNIE  SAVES  THE  DAM 

BROWNTE  BEAVER  was  always  glad  that  he 
had  taken  Grandaddy's  advice  about  the 
freshet.  And  Brownie's  neighbors  were 
glad  that  he  had,  too.  For  that  was  really 
the  only  thing  that  saved  the  village  from 
being  carried  away  by  the  flood  of  water 
that  swept  down  upon  the  pond,  after  it 
had  rained  for  two  days  and  two  nights. 

The  pond  rose  so  quickly  and  the  water 
rushed  past  so  fast  that  people  had  to 
scramble  out  of  their  houses  and  begin 
working  on  them,  to  keep  them  from  being 
washed  away. 

That  rush  of  water  meant  only  one 

29 


30  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

thing.  The  pond  was  full  and  running 
over!  And  just  as  likely  as  not  the  dam 
would  be  carried  away — the  dam  on  which 
Grandaddy  Beaver  had  worked  when  he 
was  a  youngster,  and  on  which  his  own 
grandaddy  had  worked  before  him.  It 
would  take  years  and  years  to  build  an- 
other such  dam  as  that. 

Now,  with  almost  everybody  working  on 
his  own  house,  there  was  almost  no  one 
left  to  work  upon  the  dam.  But  people 
never  stopped  to  think  about  that.  They 
never  once  remembered  that  out  of  the 
whole  village  old  Grandaddy  and  Brownie 
Beaver  were  the  only  persons  whose 
houses  had  been  made  ready  for  the 
freshet  and  that  those  two  were  the  only 
people  with  nothing  to  do  at  home. 

"  There  11  be  plenty  to  help  save  the 
dam,"  everybody  said  to  himself.  "Ill 
just  work  on  my  house." 


BROWNIE  SAVES  THE  DAM    31 

Now,  Brownie  Beaver  knew  that  there 
was  nothing  more  he  could  do  to  make  his 
house  safe,  so  he  swam  over  to  the  dam, 
expecting  to  find  a  good  many  of  his  neigh- 
bors there.  But  old  Grandaddy  Beaver 
was  the  only  other  person  he  found.  And 
he  seemed  worried. 

" It's  a  great  pity!"  he  said  to  Brownie. 
"Here's  this  fine  dam,  which  has  taken 
so  many  years  to  build,  and  it's  a-going  to 
be  washed  away — you  mark  my  words ! ' ' 

"What  makes  you  think  that?"  asked 
Brownie. 

"There's  nobody  here  to  do  anything," 
said  Grandaddy  Beaver.  "The  spillways 
of  this  dam  ought  to  be  made  as  big  as  pos- 
sible, to  let  the  freshet  pass  through.  But 
I  can't  do  it,  for  I  can't  swim  as  well  as 
I  could  once." 

Brownie  Beaver  looked  at  the  rushing 
water  which  poured  over  the  top  of  the 


32  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

dam  in  a  hundred  places  and  was  already 
carrying  off  mud  and  sticks,  eating  the 
dam  away  before  his  very  eyes. 

"Ill  save  the  dam!"  he  cried. 

"You?"  Grandaddy  Beaver  exclaimed. 
"Why,  what  do  you  think  you  can  do?" 
Being  so  old,  he  couldn't  help  believing 
that  other  people  were  too  young  to  do  dif- 
ficult things. 

"Watch  me  and  111  show  you!" 
Brownie  Beaver  told  him.  And  without 
saying  another  word  he  swam  to  the  near- 
est spillway  and  began  making  it  bigger. 

Sometimes  he  had  to  fight  the  freshet 
madly,  to  keep  from  being  swept  over  the 
dam  himself.  Sometimes,  too,  as  he  stood 
on  the  dam  it  crumbled  beneath  him  and 
he  found  himself  swimming  again. 

How  many  narrow  escapes  he  had  that 
day  Brownie  Beaver  could  never  remem- 
ber. When  they  happened,  he  didn't  have 


BROWNIE  SAVES  THE  DAM    33 

time  to  count  them,  he  was  working  so  bus- 
ily. And  if  old  Grandaddy  Beaver  hadn  't 
told  everyone  afterward,  how  Brownie 
saved  the  great  dam  from  being  swept 
away,  and  how  hard  he  had  worked,  and 
how  he  had  swum  fearlessly  into  the  tor- 
rent, people  wouldn't  have  known  any- 
thing about  it. 

To  be  sure,  they  had  noticed  that  the 
water  went  down  almost  as  suddenly  as  it 
rose.  But  they  hadn't  stopped  to  think 
that  there  must  have  been  some  reason 
for  that.  And  when  they  learned  that 
Brownie  Beaver  was  the  reason,  the  whole 
village  gave  him  a  vote  of  thanks. 

They  wanted  to  give  him  a  gold-headed 
cane,  too.  But  they  were  unable  to  find 
one  anywhere. 

When  Brownie  Beaver  heard  of  that  he 
said  it  was  just  as  well,  because  he  seldom 
walked  far  on  land  and  there  wasn't  much 


34  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

use  in  a  person's  carrying  a  cane  when  he 
swam,  anyhow.  Although  it  was  some- 
times done,  he  had  always  considered  it  a 
silly  practice — and  one  that  he  would  not 
care  to  follow. 


VI 
A  HAPPY  THOUGHT 

BROWNIE  BEAVER  liked  to  know  what  was 
going  on  in  the  world.  But  living  far 
from  Pleasant  Valley  as  he  did,  he  seldom 
heard  any  news  before  it  was  quite  old. 

"I  wish "  he  said  to  Mr.  Crow  one 

day,  when  that  old  gentleman  was  making 
him  a  visit — "I  wish  someone  would  start 
a  newspaper  in  this  neighborhood." 

Mr.  Crow  told  Brownie  that  he  would 
be  glad  to  bring  him  an  old  newspaper 
whenever  he  happened  to  find  one. 

"Thank  you!"  Brownie  Beaver  said. 
"  You  're  very  kind.  But  an  old  news- 
paper would  be  of  no  use  to  me." 

35 


a 

V 


86  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

"Why    not?"    Mr.     Crow    inquired. 

They  make  very  good  beds,  I've  been 
told.  And  I  suppose  that  is  what  you 
want  one  for." 

"Not  at  all!"  Brownie  replied.  "I'd 
like  to  know  what's  happening  over  in 
Pleasant  Valley.  It  takes  so  long  for  news 
to  reach  us  here  in  our  pond  that  it's  often 
hardly  worth  listening  to  when  we  hear 
it — it's  so  old.  Now,  what  I'd  really  pre- 
fer is  a  newspaper  that  would  tell  me 
everything  that's  going  to  happen  a  week 
later." 

Mr.  Crow  said  he  never  heard  of  a 
newspaper  like  that. 

"Well,  somebody  ought  to  start  one," 
Brownie  Beaver  answered. 

Mr.  Crow  thought  deeply  for  some  min- 
utes without  saying  a  word.  And  at  last 
he  cried  suddenly : 

"I  have  an  idea  I" 


£  HAPPY  THOUGHT          37 

"Have  you?"  Brownie  Beaver  ex- 
claimed. "What  is  it,  Mr.  Crow?" 

"I'll  be  your  newspaper!"  Mr.  Crow 
told  Mm. 

At  that  Brownie  Beaver  looked  some- 
what doubtful. 

"That's  very  kind  of  you,"  he  said. 
"But  I'm  afraid  it  wouldn't  do  me  much 
good.  You're  so  black  that  the  ink 

wouldn't  show  on  you  at  all unless," 

he  added,  "they  use  white  ink  to  print  on 
you." 

"You  don't  understand,"  old  Mr.  Crow 
said.  "What  I  mean  is  this:  I'll  fly  over 
here  once  a  week  and  tell  you  everything 
that's  happened-  Of  course,"  he  contin- 
ued, "I  can't  very  well  tell  you  everything 
that  is  going  to  take  place  the  following 
week.  But  I  '11  do  my  best. ' ' 

Brownie  Beaver  was  delighted.  And 
when  Mr.  Crow  asked  him  what  day  he 


38  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

wanted  his  newspaper  Brownie  said  that 
Saturday  afternoon  would  be  a  good  time. 

"That's  the  last  day  of  the  week," 
Brownie  Beaver  remarked,  "so  you  ought 
to  have  plenty  of  news  f  c  r  me.  You  know, 
if  you  came  the  first  day  of  the  week  there 
would  be  very  little  to  tell." 

"That's  so!"  said  Mr.  Crow.  "Well 
say '  Saturday, '  then.  And  you  shall  have 
your  newspaper  without  fail — unless,"  he 
explainer! — "unless  there  should  be  a  bad 
storm,  or  unless  I  should  be  ill.  And,  of 
course,  if  Farmer  Green  should  want  me 
to  help  him  in  his  cornfield,  I  wouldn't  be 
able  to  come.  There  might  be  other 
things,  too,  to  keep  me  at  home,  which  I 
can't  think  of  just  now, "  said  Mr.  Crow. 

Again  Brownie  Beaver  looked  a  bit 
doubtful. 

"I  hope  you'll  try  to  be  regular,"  he 
told  Mr.  Crow.  "When  a  person  takes  :: 


A  HAPPY  THOUGHT          39> 

newspaper  he  doesn't  like  to  be  disap- 
pointed, you  know." 

Old  Mr.  Crow  said  that  he  hoped  noth- 
ing would  prevent  his  coming  to  Brown- 
ie's house  every  Saturday  afternoon. 

" There's  only  one  more  thing  I  can 
think  of,"  he  croaked,  "that  would  make 
it  impossible  for  me  to  be  here.  And  that 
is  if  I  should  lose  count  of  the  days  of  the 
week  or  have  to  see  a  baseball  game  or  fly 
south  for  the  winter." 

"But  that's  three  things,  instead  of 
only  one/'  Brownie  Beaver  objected. 

"Well — maybe  it  is,"  Mr.  Crow  replied 
— "the  way  you  count.  But  I  call  it  only 
one  because  I  said  it  all  in  one  breath, 
without  a  single  pause." 

"I  hope  you  won't  tell  me  the  news  as 
fast  as  that,"  said  Brownie  Beaver,  "for 
if  you  did  I  should  never  be  able  to  remem- 
ber one-half  of  it." 


40  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

But  Mr.  Crow  promised  that  he  would 
talk  very  slowly. 

" You  11  be  perfectly  satisfied/7  he  told 
Brownie.  "And  now  I  must  go  home  at 
once,  to  begin  gathering  news." 


Mr.  Crow  Called  Down  the  Chimney 


VII 
A  NEWFANGLED  NEWSPAPER 

AFTER  Mr.  Crow  flew  back  to  Pleasant 
Valley  to  gather  news  for  him,  Brownie 
Beaver  carefully  counted  each  day  that 
passed.  Since  Mr.  Crow  had  agreed  to  be 
his  newspaper,  and  come  each  Saturday 
afternoon  to  tell  him  everything  that  had 
happened  during  the  week,  Brownie  was 
in  a  great  hurry  for  Saturday  to  arrive. 

In  order  to  make  no  mistake,  he  put 
aside  a  stick  in  which  he  gnawed  a  notch 
each  day.  And  in  that  way  he  knew  ex- 
actly when  Saturday  came. 

That  was  probably  the  longest  day  in 
Brownie  Beaver 's  life.  At  least,  it  seemed 

41 


42  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

so  to  him.  Whenever  he  saw  a  bird  soar- 
ing above  the  tree-tops  he  couldn't  help 
hoping  it  was  Mr.  Crow.  And  whenever 
he  heard  a  caw — caw  far  off  in  the  dis- 
tance Brownie  Beaver  dropped  whatever 
he  happened  to  be  doing,  expecting  that 
Mr.  Crow  would  flap  into  sight  at  any  mo- 
ment. 

Brownie  had  many  disappointments. 
But  Mr.  Crow  really  came  at  last.  He 
lighted  right  on  top  of  Brownie  Beaver's 
house  and  called  "Paper  I"  down  the  chim- 
ney— just  like  that  I 

Brownie  happened  to  be  inside  his 
house.  And  in  a  wonderfully  short  time 
his  head  appeared  above  the  water  and  he 
soon  crawled  up  beside  Mr.  Crow. 

"Well,  I  am  glad  to  see  you!"  he  told 
Mr.  Crow. 

"  Peter  Mink  caught  a  monstrous  eel  in 
the  duck  pond  on  Monday,"  Mr.  Crow 


A  NEWFANGLED  NEWSPAPER    43 

said.  Being  a  newspaper,  he  thought  he 
ought  to  say  nothing  except  what  was 
news — not  even  "Good  afternoon!" 

"Mr.  Rabbit,  of  Pine  Ridge,  with  his 
wife  and  fourteen  children,  is  visiting  his 
brother,  Mr.  Jeremiah  Rabbit.  Mrs.  Jere- 
miah Rabbit  says  she  does  not  know  when 
her  husband's  relations  are  going  home," 
Mr.  Crow  continued  to  relate  in  a  sing- 
song voice. 

"Goodness  gracious!"  Brownie  Beaver 
exclaimed. 

"Fatty  Coon "  Mr.   Crow  said— 

"Fatty  Coon  was  confined  to  his  house  by 
illness  Tuesday  night.  He  ate  too  many 
dried  apples." 

"Well,*  well!"  Brownie  Beaver  mur- 
mured. And  he  started  to  ask  Mr.  Crow  a 
question.  But  Mr.  Crow  interrupted  him 
with  more  news. 

"Mrs.  Bear  had  a  birthday  on  Wednes- 


44 

day.  An  enjoyable  time  was  had  by  all — 
except  the  pig." 

" Pig ?"  Brownie  Beaver  asked.  "What 
pig?" 

"The  pig  they  ate,"  said  Mr.  Crow. 
And  he  went  right  on  talking.  "On 
Thursday  Mr.  Woodchuck  went  to  visit 
his  cousins  in  the  West.  Mrs.  Woodchuck 
is  worried." 

"What's  she  worried  about?"  Brownie 
inquired. 

"She's  afraid  he's  coming  back  again," 
Mr.  Crow  explained. 

"I  have  heard  he  was  lazy,"  Brownie 
said.  ' '  What  happened  on  Friday  ? ' ' 

"  Tommy  Fox  made  a  visit.  But  he 
didn't  have  a  good  time  at  all,"  Mr.  Crow 
reported,  "and  he  left  faster  than  he 
came." 

Brownie  Beaver  wanted  to  know  where 
Tommy  Fox  made  his  visit. 


A  NEWFANGLED  NEWSPAPER    45 

"At  Farmer  Green's  hen-house, "  Mr. 
Crow  explained. 

"Why  did  he  hurry  away?"  Brownie 
asked. 

"Old  dog  Spot  chased  him,'7  Mr.  Crow 
replied.  "But  you  mustn't  ask  ques- 
tions," he  complained.  "You  can't  ask 
questions  of  a  newspaper,  you  know." 

"Well — what  happened  on  Saturday?" 

"There  you  go  again!"  cried  Mr.  Crow. 
"Another  question !  I  declare,  I  don't  be- 
lieve you  ever  took  a  newspaper  before — 
did  you?" 

Brownie  Beaver  admitted  that  he  never 
had. 

"Then "  said  Mr.  Crow— "then 

don't  interrupt  me  again,  please !  I'll  tell 
you  all  the  news  I've  brought.  And  when 
I've  finished  I'll  stop  being  a  newspaper 
and  be  myself  for  a  while.  And  then  we 
can  talk.  But  not  before !"  he  insisted. 


\ 

46  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

Brownie  Beaver  nodded  his  head.  He 
was  afraid  that  if  he  said  another  word 
Mr.  Crow  would  grow  angry  and  fly  away 
without  telling  him  any  more  news. 

"On  Saturday — this  morning,  to  be  ex- 
act"— said  Mr.  Crow,  "there  came  near 
being  a  bad  accident.  Jimmy  Rabbit  al- 
most cut  off  Frisky  Squirrel's  tail." 

Mr.  Crow  paused  and  looked  at  Brownie 
Beaver  out  of  the  corner  of  his  eye.  He 
knew  that  Brownie  would  want  to  know 
what  prevented  the  accident.  But  he  was 
in  no  hurry  to  tell  him. 

For  a  few  moments  Brownie  waited  to 
hear  the  rest.  But  a  few  moments  was 
more  than  he  could  endure. 

"Why  didn't  Jimmy  cut  off  his  tail?" 
Brownie  asked  eagerly. 

"There!"  said  Mr.  Crow.  "YouVe 
done  just  as  I  told  you  not  to.  So  I  shall 
not  tell  you  the  rest  until  next  Satur- 


A  NEWFANGLED  NEWSPAPER    47 

day.  .  .  .  You  see,  you  have  a  few  things 
to  learn  about  taking  a  newspaper. ' '  And 
he  would  give  Brownie  no  more  news  that 
day.  To  be  sure,  he  was  willing  to  talk — 
but  only  about  things  that  had  happened 
where  Brownie  Beaver  lived. 


VIII 

MR.  CROW  IS  UPSET 

BROWNIE  BEAVER  couldn't  help  feeling 
that  Mr.  Crow  had  not  treated  him  very 
well,  because  Mr.  Crow  hadn't  told  him  all 
the  news  about  Frisky  Squirrel's  tail.  He 
thought  that  maybe  there  were  things 
about  a  newspaper  that  even  Mr.  Crow 
didn't  know. 

Another  week  had  passed.  Brownie 
knew  that  it  had,  because  since  Mr.  Crow's 
last  call  he  had  cut  a  notch  in  a  stick  each 
day.  And  there  were  now  seven  of  them. 

Late  Saturday  afternoon  Mr.  Crow 
came  back  again.  He  lighted  on  top  of 
Brownie's  house  and  called  "Paper!" 

48 


MR.  CROW  IS  UPSET          49 

down  the  chimney,  just  as  he  had  a  week 
before. 

Brownie  Beaver  came  swimming  up 
once  more. 

' '  Look  here ! ' '  he  said  to  Mr.  Crow.  ' '  I 
don't  believe  you  know  much  about  being 
a  newspaper,  do  you*?" 

That  surprised  Mr.  Crow. 

"What  do  you  mean?"  he  asked. 

"A    newspaper "    said    Brownie 

Beaver — "a  newspaper  is  always  left  on 
a  person's  doorstep.  I've  talked  with  a 
good  many  people  and  not  one  of  them 
ever  heard  of  a  paper  being  left  on  the 
roof." 

Mr.  Crow's  face  seemed  to  grow  blacker 
than  ever,  he  was  so  angry. 

"How  can  anybody  leave  a  newspaper 
on  your  doorstep,  when  the  step's  under 
water?"  he  growled. 

Brownie  Beaver  did  not  answer  that 


50  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

question,  for  he  had  something  else  to  say 
to  Mr.  Crow. 

"I've  talked  with  a  good  many  people,'' 
he  said  once  more,  "and  not  one  of  them 
ever  heard  of  such  rudeness  as  shouting 
doivn  a  person's  chimney.  If  there  was 
anybody  asleep  in  the  house,  it  would  cer- 
tainly wake  him ;  and  if  a  person  had  a  fire 
in  his  house,  shouting  down  the  chimney 
might  put  it  out." 

Mr.  Crow  looked  rather  foolish. 

"I'll  try  to  think  of  some  way  of  leaving 
your  newspaper  that  will  suit  us  both,"  he 
said.  Then  he  hemmed  and  began  to  tell 
Brownie  the  week's  news. 

"On  Sunday,"  said  Mr.  Crow,  "there 
was  a  freshet." 

"I  knew  that  before  you  did,"  said 
Brownie  Beaver. 

Mr.  Crow  looked  disappointed. 

"How?  "he  asked. 


MR.  CROW  IS  UPSET         51 

"Why,  I  live  further  up  the  river  than 
you,"  said  Brownie  Beaver.  "And  since 
freshets  always  come  down  a  river,  this 
one  didn't  reach  you  till  after  it  had 
passed  me." 

Something  made  Mr.  Crow  peevish. 

"I  don't  believe  you'd  care  to  hear  any 
more  of  my  n  ews, ' '  he  said.  ' '  You  appear 
to  know  it  already.  Perhaps  you'll  be 
kind  enough  to  tell  me  the  sort  of  news  you 
prefer  to  hear." 

"Certainly!"  Brownie  Bearer  replied. 
"Now,  there's  the  weather!  I've  talked 
with  a  good  many  people  and  they  all  say; 
that  a  good  newspaper  ought  to  tell  the 
weather  for  the  next  day." 

Mr.  Crow  cocked  an  eye  up  at  the  sky. 

"To-morrow  will  be  fair,"  he  said. 

"I'm  told  that  a  good  newspaper  ought 
to  tell  a  few  jokes,"  Brownie  Beaver  con- 
tinued. 


52  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

But  Mr.  Crow  sneered  openly  at  that. 
"I'm  a  newspaper — not  a  jest-look/'  he 
announced. 

"Then  you  refuse  to  tell  any  jokes,  do 
you?"  Brownie  Beaver  asked  him. 

"I  certainly  do!"  Mr.  Crow  cried  in- 
dignantly. 

« <  Very  well ! ' '  Brownie  said.  "  I  see  I  '11 
have  to  take  some  other  newspaper, 
though  I  must  say  I  hate  to  change — after 
taking  this  one  so  long." 

"I  hope  you'll  find  one  to  suit  you,"  Mr. 
Crow  said  in  a  cross  voice.  And  he  flew 
away  without  another  word.  He  was  ter- 
ribly upset.  You  see,  he  had  enjoyed  be- 
ing a  newspaper,  because  it  gave  him  an 
excuse  for  asking  people  the  most  inquisi- 
tive questions.  He  had  intended  all  that 
week  to  ask  Aunt  Polly  Woodchuck 
whether  she  wore  a  wig.  But  he  hadn't 
been  able  to  find  her  at  home.  And  now 


MR.  CROW  IS  UPSET         53 

it  was  too  late — for  Mr.  Crow  was  a  news- 
paper no  longer. 

As  for  Brownie  Beaver,  he  succeeded  in 
getting  Jasper  Jay  to  be  his  newspaper. 
Though  Jasper  told  him  many  jokes, 
Brownie  found  that  he  could  not  depend 
upon  Jasper's  news.  And  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  Jasper  made  up  most  of  it  himself. 
He  claimed  tliat  the  newest  news  was  the 
best. 

"That's  why  I  invent  it  myself,  right 
on  the  spot,"  he  explained. 


IX 

THE  SIGN  ON  THE  TREE 

one  of  Brownie  Beaver's  long  excur- 
sions down  the  stream  he  came  upon  a  tree 
to  which  a  sign  was  nailed.  Now,  Brownie 
had  never  learned  to  read.  But  he  had 
heard  that  Uncle  Jerry  Chuck  could  tell 
what  a  sign  said.  So  Brownie  asked  a 
pleasant  young  fellow  named  Frisky 
Squirrel  if  he  would  mind  asking  Uncle 
Jerry  to  come  over  to  Swift  River  on  a 
matter  of  important  business. 

When  Uncle  Jerry  Chuck  appeared, 
Brownie  Beaver  said  he  was  glad  to  see 
him  and  that  Uncle  Jerry  was  looking 
very  well. 

54 


THE  SIGN  ON  THE  TREE     55 

"I've  sent  for  you,"  said  Brownie,  " be- 
cause I  wanted  you  to  see  this  sign.  I  can 
tell  by  the  tracks  under  the  tree  that  the 
sign  was  put  up  only  to-day.  And  I 
thought  you  ought  to  know  about  it  at 
once,  Uncle  Jerry." 

As  soon  as  he  heard  that,  Uncle  Jerry 
Chuck  stepped  close  to  the  tree  and  began 
to  read  the  sign. 

Now,  there  was  something  about  Uncle 
Jerry's  reading  that  Brownie  Beaver  had 
heard.  People  had  told  him  that  Uncle 
Jerry  Chuck  couldn't  tell  what  a  sign  said 
unless  he  read  it  aloud.  That  was  why 
Brownie  Beaver  had  sent  for  him,  for 
Brownie  knew  Uncle  Jerry  well  enough  to 
guess  that  if  anybody  ashed  Uncle  Jerry 
to  read  the  sign,  Uncle  Jerry  would  insist 
on  being  paid  for  his  trouble. 

But  now  Uncle  Jerry  was  going  to  read 
the  sign  for  himself.  And  Brownie 


56  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

Beaver  moved  up  beside  him,  to  hear  what 
he  said. 

The  sign  looked  like  this : 

NO  HUNTING 

OR  FISHING 

ALOUD 

Uncle  Jerry  repeated  the  words  in  a 
sing-song  tone. 

"I  don't  think  much  of  that,''  he  said. 
"It's  bad  enough  to  be  hunted  by  people 
who  make  a  noise,  though  you  have  some 
chance  of  getting  away  then.  But  if  they 
can't  make  a  noise  it  will  be  much  more 
dangerous  for  all  of  us  forest-people." 

If  Tommy  Fox  hadn't  happened  to  come 
along  just  then  Uncle  Jerry  wouldn't  have 
found  out  his  mistake.  But  Tommy  Fox 
soon  set  him  right.  As  soon  as  he  had 
talked  a  bit  with  Uncle  Jerry  he  said : 


THE  SIGN  ON  THE  TREE     57 

"What  the  sign  really  means  is  that  no 
hunting  or  fishing  will  be  permitted.  That 
last  word  should  be  '  allowed/  instead  of 
1  aloud/  It's  spelled  wrong,"  he  ex- 
plained. 

"That's  better!"  Uncle  Jerry  cried. 
"Now  there'll  be  no  more  hunting  in  the 
neighborhood  and  we'll  all  be  quite 
safe.  .  .  .  Farmer  Green  is  kinder  than  I 
supposed." 

When  Brownie  Beaver  heard  that,  he 
said  good-by  and  started  home  at  once  to 
tell  the  good  news  to  all  his  friends.  He 
had  leaped  into  the  river  and  was  swim- 
ming up-stream  rapidly  when  Uncle  Jerry 
called  to  him  to  stop. 

"There's  something  I  want  to  say," 
Uncle  Jerry  shouted.  "I  think  you  ought 
to  pay  me  for  reading  the  sign." 

But  Brownie  Beaver  shook  his  head. 

"I  didn't  ask  you  to  read  the  sign  for 


58  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

me,"  he  declared.  "You  read  it  for  your- 
self, Uncle  Jerry.  And  besides,  you  didn  't 
know  what  it  meant  until  Tommy  Fox 
came  along  and  told  you.  ...  If  you  want 
to  know  what  I  think,  I  '11  tell  you.  I  think 
you  ought  to  pay  Tommy  Fox  something." 
Uncle  Jerry  at  once  began  to  look  wor- 
ried. He  said  nothing  more,  but  plunged 
out  of  sight  into  some  bushes,  as  if  he  were 
afraid  Tommy  Fox  might  come  back  and 
find  him. 


A  HOLIDAY 

THERE  was  great  rejoicing  in  the  little  vil- 
lage in  the  pond  when  Brownie  Beaver  re- 
turned with  the  good  news  that  there 
would  be  no  more  hunting  and  fishing. 
And  when  old  Grandaddy  Beaver  said 
that  everybody  ought  to  take  a  holiday  to 
celebrate  the  occasion,  all  the  villagers  said 
it  was  a  fine  idea. 

So  they  stopped  working,  for  once,  and 
began  to  plan  the  celebration.  They 
thought  that  there  ought  to  be  swimming 
races  and  tree-felling  contests.  And 
Brownie  Beaver  said  that  after  the  holi- 
day was  over  he  would  suggest  that  some- 

59 


60  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

one  be  chosen  to  go  down  and  thank 
Farmer  Green  for  putting  the  notice  on 
the  tree. 

The  whole  village  agreed  to  Brownie's 
proposal  and  they  voted  to  see  who  should 
be  sent.  Brownie  Beaver  himself  passed 
his  hat  around  to  take  up  the  votes.  And 
it  was  quickly  found  that  every  vote  was 
for  Brownie  Beaver.  He  had  even  voted 
for  himself.  But  no  one  seemed  to  care 
about  that. 

Then  the  swimming  races  began.  There 
was  a  race  under  water,  a  race  with  heads 
out  of  water — and  another  in  which  each 
person  who  took  part  had  to  stay  beneath 
the  surface  as  long  as  he  could. 

That  last  race  caused  some  trouble.  A 
young  scamp  called  Slippery  Sam  won  it. 
And  many  people  thought  that  he  had 
swum  up  inside  his  house,  where  he  could 
get  air,  without  being  seen.  But  no  one 


Brownie  Beaver  Took  Up  the  Votes 


A  HOLIDAY  61 

could  prove  it;  so  he  won  the  race,  just 
the  same. 

Next  came  the  tree-felling  contest. 
There  were  six,  including  Brownie 
Beaver,  that  took  part  in  it.  Grandaddy 
Beaver  had  picked  out  six  trees  of  exactly 
the  same  size.  Each  person  in  the  contest 
had  to  try  to  bring  his  tree  to  the  ground 
first.  And  that  caused  some  trouble,  too, 
because  some  claimed  that  their  trees  were 
of  harder  wood  than  others — and  more 
'difficult  to  gnaw — while  others  complained 
that  the  bark  of  their  trees  tasted  very  bit- 
ter, and  of  course  that  made  their  task 
unpleasant. 

Those  six  trees,  falling  one  after  an- 
other, made  such  a  racket  that  old  Mr. 
Crow  heard  the  noise  miles  away  and  flew 
over  to  see  what  was  happening. 

After  everybody  crept  out  of  his  hiding- 
place  some  time  afterward  (everyone  had 


62  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

to  hide  for  a  while,  you  know),  there  was 
Mr.  Crow  sitting  upon  one  of  the  fallen 
trees. 

" What's  going  on?"  he  inquired. 
" You're  not  going  to  cut  down  the  whole 
forest,  I  hope." 

Then  they  told  him  about  the  celebra- 
tion. And  Mr.  Crow  began  to  laugh. 

"What  are  you  going  to  do  next?"  he 
asked. 

"We're  a-going  to  send  Brownie  Beaver 
over  to  Pleasant  Valley  to  thank  Fanner 
Green  for  his  kindness  in  putting  an  end 
to  hunting  and  fishing,"  said  old  Gran- 
daddy  Beaver.  i 'And  he's  a-going  to  start 
right  away." 

Mr.  Crow  looked  around.  And  there 
was  Brownie  Beaver,  with  a  lunch-basket 
in  his  hand,  all  ready  to  begin  his  long 
journey. 

"Say  good-by  to  him  then,"  said  Mr. 


A  HOLIDAY  63 

Crow,  "for  you'll  never  see  him  again." 

"What  do  you  mean?"  Grandaddy 
Beaver  asked.  And  as  for  Brownie — he 
was  so  frightened  that  he  dropped  his 
basket  right  in  the  water. 

' 1 1  mean "  said  Mr.  Crow — ' '  I  mean 

that  it's  a  very  dangerous  errand.  You 
don't  seem  to  have  understood  that  sign. 
In  the  first  place,  it  was  not  Farmer 
Green,  but  his  son  Johnnie,  who  nailed  it 
to  the  tree." 

"Ah!"  Brownie  Beaver  cried.  "That 
is  why  one  of  the  words  was  misspelled!" 

"No  doubt!"  Mr.  Crow  remarked.  As 
a  matter  of  fact,  not  being  able  to  read  he 
hadn't  known  about  the  word  that  was 
spelled  wrong.  ' l  In  the  second  place, ' '  he 
continued,  "the  sign  doesn't  mean  that 
hunting  and  fishing  are  to  be  stopped.  It 
means  that  no  one  "but  Johnnie  Green  is 
going  to  hunt  and  fish  in  this  neighbor- 


64  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

hood.  He  wants  all  the  hunting  and  fish- 
ing for  himself.  That's  why  he  put  up 
that  sign.  And  instead  of  hunting  and 
fishing  being  stopped,  I  should  say  that 
they  were  going  to  begin  to  be  more  dan- 
gerous than  ever.  .  .  .  They  tell  me,"  he 
p.lded,  "that  Johnnie  Green  had  a  new 
gun  on  his  birthday." 

Brownie  Beaver  said  at  once  that  he  was 
not  going  on  the  errand  of  thanks. 

"I  resign,"  he  said,  "and  anyone  that 
wants  to  go  in  my  place  is  welcome  to  do 
so." 

But  nobody  cared  to  go.  And  the  whole 
village  seemed  greatly  disappointed,  until 
Grandaddy  Beaver  made  a  short  speech. 

"We've  all  had  a  good  holiday,  any- 
how," he  said.  "And  I  should  say  that 
was  something  to  be  thankful  for." 


XI 

BAD  NEWS 

"HAVE  you  heard  the  news?"  Tired  Tim 
asked  Brownie  Beaver  one  day.  '  '  There 's 
going  to  be  a  cyclone. " 

"A  cyclone?"  Brownie  exclaimed. 
' '  What 's  that  I  I  've  never  heard  of  one. ' ' 

"It's  a  big  storm,  with  a  terrible  wind," 
Tired  Tim  explained.  "The  wind  will 
blow  so  hard  that  it  will  snap  off  big 
trees." 

6  i  Good ! ' '  Brownie  Beaver  cried.  l '  Then 
I  won't  have  to  cut  down  any  more  trees 
in  order  to  reach  the  tender  bark  that 
grows  in  their  tops." 

Tired  Tim  laughed. 

65 


66  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

"You  won't  think  it's  very  'good,'  "  he 
said,  "when  the  cyclone  strikes  the  vil- 
lage." 

"Why  not  ?"  Brownie  inquired. 

"Because "  said  Tired  Tim— "be- 
cause the  wind  will  blow  every  house  away. 
.It  will  snatch  up  the  sticks  of  which  the 
houses  are  built  and  carry  them  over  the 
top  of  Blue  Mountain.  Then  I  guess 
you'll  wish  you  had  taken  my  advice  and 
not  built  that  new  house  of  yours. 

"7  shall  be  safe  enough,"  the  lazy  ras- 
cal continued.  "All  I'll  have  to  do  will  be 
to  crawl  inside  my  house  in  the  bank ;  for 
the  wind  can't  very  well  blow  the  ground 
away." 

Brownie  Beaver  thought  that  Tired 
Tim  was  just  trying  to  scare  him. 

"I  don't  believe  there's  going  to  be  any 
such  thing!"  he  exclaimed.  , 

' '  Don 't  you  ? ' '  Tim  grinned.    ' i  You  j  ust 


BAD  NEWS  67 

go  and  ask  Grandaddy  Beaver.  He's  the 
one  that  says  there's  going  to  be  a  cy- 
clone." 

At  that  Brownie  Beaver  stopped  work- 
ing and  hurried  off:  to  find  old  Grandaddy 
Beaver.  And  to  his  great  dismay,  Gran- 
daddy said  that  wh;  i  Tired  Tim  had  told 
him  was  the  truth. 

"It's  a-coming!"  Grandaddy  Beaver 
declared.  "I  saw  one  once  before  in  these 
parts,  years  before  anybody  else  in  this 
village  was  born.  And  when  I  see  a  cy- 
clone a-coming  I  can  generally  tell  it  a 
long  way  off." 

"When  is  it  going  to  get  here?" 
Brownie  asked  in  a  quavering  voice. 

"Next  Tuesday !"  Grandaddy  replied. 

"What  makes  you  think  it's  coming?" 

"Well — everything  looks  just  the  way 
it  did  before  the  last  cyclone,"  Grandaddy 
Beaver  explained,  as  he  took  a  mouthful 


68  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

of  willow  bark.  l  i  The  moon  looks  just  the 
same  and  the  sun  looks  just  the  same.  I 
had  a  twinge  of  rheumatics  in  my  left 
shoulder  yesterday;  and  to-day  the  pain's 
in  my  right.  It  was  exactly  that  way  be- 
fore the  last  cyclone." 

Brownie  Beaver  did  not  doubt  that  the 
old  gentleman  knew  what  he  was  talking 
about.  He  remembered  that  Grandaddy 
Beaver  had  warned  everyone  there  was 
going  to  be  a  freshet.  And  though  people 
had  laughed  at  the  old  chap,  the  freshet 
had  come. 

Sadly  worried,  Brownie  went  and  called 
on  all  his  neighbors  and  asked  them  what 
they  were  going  to  do.  And  to  his  surprise 
he  found  that  they  were  laughing  at  Gran- 
daddy  once  more.  They  seemed  to  have 
forgotten  about  the  freshet. 

But  Brownie  Beaver  could  not  forget 
that  dreadful  night.  And  now  he  tried  to 


BAD  NEWS  69 

think  of  some  way  to  keep  his  new  house 
from  being  blown  away  by  the  great  wind, 
which  Grandaddy  Beaver  said  was  com- 
ing on  Tuesday  without  fail. 


XII 
GRAKDADDY  BEAVER  THINKS 

IT  was  on  a  Friday  that  Brownie  Beaver 
first  heard  the  cyclone  was  coming.  And 
after  making  sure  that  Grandaddy  Beaver 
knew  what  he  was  talking  about  when  he 
said  the  great  wind  would  sweep  down 
upon  the  village  on  the  following  Tuesday, 
Brownie  spent  a  good  deal  of  time  wonder- 
ing what  he  had  better  do. 

He  wanted  to  save  his  house  from  being 
blown  over  the  top  of  Blue  Mountain. 
And  he  wanted  to  save  himself  from  being 
carried  along  at  the  same  time. 

Before  Friday  was  gone  Brownie 
Beaver  began  to  heap  more  mud  and  sticks 

70 


GRAND ADDY  BEAVER  THINKS    71 

upon  his  house,  to  make  it  stronger.  And 
when  Tired  Tim  came  swimming  past  the 
lazy  scamp  laughed  harder  than  ever. 

"I  see  you're  afraid  of  the  cyclone," 
he  called.  "But  what  you're  doing  won't 
help  you  any.  The  wind  will  blow  away 
those  sticks  easily  enough.  .  .  .  What  you 
ought  to  do  is  to  dig  a  house  like  mine  in 
the  bank.  Then  you  won't  have  to  worry 
about  any  cyclone." 

So  Brownie  set  to  work  and  made  him 
a  house  like  Tired  Tim's.  On  Monday  he 
had  finished  it.  But  he  didn't  like  his  new 
home  at  all. 

"It's  no  better  than  a  rat's  hole,"  he 
said.  * '  My  family  have  never  lived  in  such 
a  place  and  I'm  not  used  to  it.  I  prefer 
my  house  that's  built  of  sticks  and  mud. 
And  I'm  going  to  see  if  there  isn't  some 
way  I  can  make  it  safe." 

So  Brownie  went  to  Grandaddy  Beaver 


72  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

again  and  asked  Mm  what  he  ought  to  do. 

The  old  gentleman  said  he  would  try  to 
think  of  a  plan  to  save  Brownie's  house. 

"I  wish  you  would  hurry, "  Brownie 
urged  him.  "To-day  is  Monday;  and  to- 
morrow the  c}rclone  will  be  here.  .  .  . 
What  are  you  going  to  do  to  your  own 
house,  Grandaddy?" 

"My  house "  said  Grandaddy 

Beaver — "my  house  is  very  old.  It  has 
had  mud  and  sticks  piled  upon  it  every 
season  for  over  a  hundred  years.  You 
can  see  for  yourself  that  it's  much  bigger 
than  yours.  And  I  reckon  it's  strong 
enough  to  stay  where  it  is,  no  matter  how 
hard  the  wind  blows.  But  your  house  is 
different.  .  .  .  Let  me  think  a  minute!" 
the  old  gentleman  said. 

Brownie  waited  in  silence  while  the  old 
gentleman  thought,  with  his  eyes  shut 
tight.  Brownie  watched  him  for  a  long 


GRAND ADDY  BEAVER  THINKS    73 

time.  Once  or  twice  he  thought  he  heard 
something  that  sounded  like  a  snore.  But 
he  knew  it  couldn't  be  that — it  was  only 
the  thoughts  trying  to  get  inside  Gran- 
daddy's  head. 

At  last  Grandaddy  sat  up  with  a  start. 

"Have  you  thought  of  something?" 
Brownie  inquired. 

"What's  that?"  Grandaddy  asked. 
"Oh,  yes!  I've  a  good  idea,"  he  said. 
"What  you  must  do  is  to  tie  your  house  so 
the  wind  can't  blow  it  away." 

Brownie  thanked  him.  And  he  went 
away  feeling  quite  happy  again — until  he 
reached  home  and  started  to  follow  Gran- 
daddy's  advice.  Then  he  saw  that  he  had 
forgotten  something.  He  hadn't  anything 
with  which  to  tie  his  house  and  make  it 
safe  from  the  cyclone. 


XIII 
A  LUCKY  FIND 

BROWNIE  BEAVER  almost  wished  he  hadn't 
spent  so  much  time  waiting  for  Gran- 
daddy  to  tell  him  to  tie  down  his  house 
so  it  wouldn't  be  carried  away  by  the  big 
wind  on  the  following  day.  With  no  rope 
— or  anything  else — to  tie  the  house  with, 
Brownie  could  not  see  that  Grandaddy's 
advice  was  of  any  use  to  him. 

Anyhow,  he  was  glad  he  had  done  as 
Tired  Tim  had  suggested  and  dug  a  house 
in  the  bank,  where  he  could  hide  until  the 
storm  passed.  But  he  felt  sad  at  the 
thought  of  losing  his  comfortable  home. 
And  since  he  could  hardly  bear  to  look  at 

74 


A  LUCKY  FIND  75 

it  and  imagine  how  dreadful  it  would  be 
to  have  it  blown  over  the  top  of  Blue 
Mountain  into  Pleasant  Valley,  Brownie 
went  for  a  stroll  through  the  woods  to  try 
to  forget  his  trouble. 

He  found  himself  at  last  in  a  clearing, 
where  loggers  had  been  at  work.  They  had 
chopped  down  many  trees.  And  the  sight 
made  Brownie  Beaver  angry. 

"This  is  an  outrage!"  he  cried  aloud. 
"I'd  like  to  know  who  has  been  stealing 
our  trees.  I  suppose  it's  Farmer  Green; 
for  they  say  he's  always  up  to  such 
tricks."  He  took  a  good  look  around. 
And  then  he  turned  to  go  back  to  the  vil- 
lage and  tell  what  he  had  discovered. 

Just  as  he  turned  he  tripped  on  some- 
thing. And  something  clinked  beneath  his 
feet.  It  didn't  sound  like  a  stone.  So 
Brownie  Bea\  er  looked  down  to  see  what 
was  there. 


76  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

Now,  in  his  anger  he  had  quite  forgotten 
the  great  storm.  But  as  he  saw  what  had 
tripped  him  he  remembered  it  again.  But 
he  was  no  longer  worried. 

"Hurrah!"  Brownie  cried.  "Here's 
just  what  I  need!"  And  then  he  hurried 
back  home  again — but  not  to  tell  about  the 
trees  that  had  been  stolen.  He  hastened 
home  to  chain  down  his  house  and  save  it 
from  the  great  wind.  For  Brownie 
Beaver  had  found  a  chain,  which  the  log- 
gers had  used  to  haul  the  logs  out  of  the 
woods,  and  had  forgotten. 

It  was  almost  dark  when  Brownie 
reached  his  house  in  the  village  in  the 
pond.  He  was  never  a  very  good  walker. 
And  dragging  that  heavy  chain  behind  him 
through  the  forest  only  made  him  slower 
ii.  "m  ever.  Sometimes  the  chain  caught  on 
a  bush  and  tripped  him.  But  Brownie 
was  so  pleased  with  his  find  that  he  only 


The  Chain  Caught  on  a  Bush  and  Tripped  Him 


A  LUCKY  FIND  77 

laughed  whenever  he  fell,  for  he  was  not 
hurt. 

The  whole  village  gathered  round  his 
house  to  watch  him  while  he  tied  the  chain 
on  it  and  anchored  the  ends  of  the  chain 
to  the  bottom  of  the  pond  with  a  big  stone. 

"  Why  do  you  do  that  ?"  people  asked. 

"He's  afraid  of  the  cyclone  to-mor- 
row," Tired  Tim  piped  up,  without  wait- 
ing for  Brownie  to  answer.  "You  know, 
old  Grandaddy  Beaver  says  that  there's 
going  to  be  a  great  wind.  This  young  fel- 
ler  "  said  Tim — "he's  already  dug  a 

house  in  the  bank  near  mine — ha !  ha !  He 
thinks  Grandaddy  knows.  But  I  say  that 
Grandaddy  Beaver  is  a — a  fine,  noble,  old 
gentleman,"  Tired  Tim  stammered.  He 
had  happened  to  glance  around  while  he 
was  talking ;  and  to  his  surprise  there  was 
Grandaddy  floating  in  the  water  close  be- 
hind him. 


78  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

.  "He  certainly  is,"  everybody  agreed. 
"But  we  hope  he's  mistaken  about  the 
great  wind." 

When  Tuesday  came — which  was  the 
very  next  day — Brownie  Beaver  crept 
into  his  tunnel  in  the  bank  at  sunrise.  And 
he  never  came  outside  again  until  the  sun 
had  set. 

When  he  saw  that  his  house  was  still 
there,  in  the  middle  of  the  pond,  he 
shouted  with  joy. 

1  i  Hurrah ! ' '  he  cried.  ' t  The  chain  saved 
my  house!"  Then  he  noticed  that  all  the 
other  houses  were  still  there,  too.  "  How 's 
this?"  he  asked  Tired  Tim,  who  stood  on 
the  bank  beside  him.  "Did  my  chain  save 
the  whole  village  ?" 

Tired  Tim  grinned — for  he  was  not  too 
lazy  to  do  that. 

"There  wasn't  any  cyclone,"  he  said. 
"There  wasn't  a  breath  of  wind  all  day. 


A  LUCKY  FIND  79 

And  old  Grandaddy  Beaver  is  so  upset 
that  lie's  gone  to  bed  and  won't  talk  with 
anybody. ' ' 


XIV 
WAS  IT  A  GUN? 

EVERYBODY  in  the  village  where  Brownie 
Beaver  lived  was  very  much  upset.  Most 
people  were  angry,  too.  And  no  doubt  it 
was  natural  that  they  should  feel  that  way, 
because  while  they  were  taking  their  mid- 
day naps  a  man  had  come  and  paddled 
about  their  village  in  a  boat. 

Brownie  Beaver  was  the  first  to  hear 
him  and  he  quickly  spread  the  alarm. 
There  was  a  great  scurrying  as  all  the  vil- 
lagers stole  out  of  their  houses  and  swam 
away  under  water  to  hide  in  holes  in  the 
bank  of  the  pond  and  in  other  places  they 
knew. 

80 


WAS  IT  A  GUN?  81 

Toward  night,  when  they  all  came  back 
again,  the  man  had  gone.  But  Brownie 
and  his  neighbors  were  still  angry.  You 
must  remember  that  their  rest  had  been 
disturbed  and  they  were  feeling  somewhat 
sleepy. 

So  far  as  they  could  see,  the  man  had 
done  no  damage  either  to  their  houses  or 
to  the  dam.  But  people  felt  a  bit  uneasy 
just  the  same,  until  old  Grandaddy  Beaver 
looked  all  around  and  reported  that  the 
man  had  set  no  traps.  You  see,  Gran- 
daddy  knew  a  great  deal  about  traps.  He 
had  been  caught  in  one  when  he  was 
young.  Luckily,  he  managed  to  get  away ; 
and  he  learned  a  few  things  that  he  never 
forgot. 

Now,  Brownie  Beaver  had  begun  to  cut 
down  a  tree  the  night  before.  Something 
had  interrupted  him  and  he  had  left  the 
tree  not  quite  gnawed  through  and  need- 


82  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

ing  only  a  few  more  bites  to  bring  it  down. 
He  was  intending  to  finish  his  task  soon 
after  dark — which  was  the  time  he  liked 
best  for  working. 

Accordingly,  after  Brownie  had  finished 
his  supper  and  had  called  at  every  house 
in  the  village  to  talk  over  the  visit  of  the 
strange  man,  he  swam  to  the  shore  of  the 
pond  and  made  his  way  to  the  slanting 
tree,  which  stood  a  short  distance  from  the 
water. 

It  was  quite  dark.  And  that  was  what 
Brownie  liked,  because  he  could  work 
without  being  disturbed — at  least,  that 
was  what  he  thought. 

Since  he  could  see  quite  well  in  spite  of 
the  dark  he  had  no  trouble  in  finding  his 
tree.  And  he  lost  no  time  in  setting  to 
work  on  it  again. 

He  began  to  gnaw  at  it  once  more.  But 
he  hadn't  moved  more  than  half-way 


WAS  IT  A  GUN?  83 

around  the  tree-trunk  when  something 
happened  that  almost  frightened  him  out 
of  his  skin. 

Right  out  of  the  darkness  came  a  blind- 
ing flash  of  light.  And  at  the  same  time  a 
queer  click  sounded  in  the  bushes  close 

by- 

Just  for  a  moment  Brownie  Beaver  was 
stiff  with  fear.  But  when  the  darkness 
closed  in  upon  him  again  he  ran  for  his 
life  toward  the  pond.  And  plunging  into 
the  water  he  swam  quickly  to  the  bottom 
and  hurried  up  his  winding  hall  into  his 
bedroom,  where  he  crouched  trembling 
upon  his  bed,  wondering  whether  he  had 
been  shot. 

Brownie  knew  that  at  night  a  gun  made 
a  flash  of  light.  But  this  gun  (if  it  was  a 
gun)  made  no  roar  such  as  was  made  by 
the  guns  Brownie  had  sometimes  heard  at 
a  distance  in  the  woods.  He  wished  that 


84  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

old  Grandaddy  Beaver  was  there.  For  he 
did  not  doubt  that  the  old  gentleman  could 
tell  him  exactly  what  had  happened. 


XV 
JASPER  JAY'S  STORY 

AFTER  the  blinding  flash  of  light  and  the 
queer  click  had  sent  Brownie  Beaver  hur- 
rying home  from  his  partly  gnawed  tree, 
he  stayed  in  his  house  for  a  long  time  be- 
fore he  ventured  out  again. 

Indeed,  the  night  was  half  gone  when  he 
at  last  he  stole  forth  to  find  Grandaddy 
Beaver  and  tell  him  about  his  awful 
fright. 

Brownie  found  the  old  gentleman  rest- 
ing after  several  hours'  work  upon  the 
big  dam.  And  when  young  Brownie  told 
Grandaddy  what  had  happened,  the  old 
gentleman  didn't  know  just  what  to  think. 

85 


86  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

"It  couldn't  have  been  a  moonbeam," 
lie  said, " because  there's  no  moon  to-night. 
And  I  don't  see  how  it  could  have  been  a 
gun,  because  there  was  no  roar.  .  .  .  Did 
you  hear  a  sort  of  whistle?"  he  asked. 
"Anything  that  sounded  like  a  bullet  pass- 
ing over  your  head?" 

Brownie  Beaver  shuddered  at  the  mere 
mention  of  a  bullet. 

1 '  I  heard  nothing  but  that  odd  click, ' '  he 
replied. 

"That's  what  a  gun  sounds  like  when 
it's  cocked,"  said  Grandaddy  Beaver. 
"But  with  a  gun,  the  click  comes  first,  the 
flash  next,  and  the  roar  last  of  all.  And 
here  you  tell  me  the  flash  came  first,  the 
click  next,  and  there  was  no  roar  at 
all.  .  .  .  What's  a  body  a-going  to  think, 
I  'd  like  to  know  I  It  wasn  't  a  gun — that 's 
sure.  And  if  you  want  to  know  what  I  say 
about  it,  why — I  say  that  it  was  a  very 


JASPER  JAY'S  STORY         87 

strange  thing  that  happened  to  you.  And 
I'd  keep  away  from  that  tree  for  a  long 
time." 

"I  had  made  up  my  mind  that  I'd  do 
that,"  Brownie  told  him.  And  then  he 
went  home  again.  But  he  never  went  to 
sleep  until  almost  noon  the  following  day ; 
for  whenever  he  closed  his  eyes  he  seemed 
to  see  that  blinding  flash  of  light  again. 

When  Jasper  Jay  came  on  Saturday 
afternoon  to  tell  Brownie  Beaver  what 
had  happened  in  the  world  during  the  past 
week  he  had  an  astounding  piece  of  news. 

"Here's  something  about  you,"  Jasper 
told  Brownie,  as  soon  as  he  could  catch 
his  breath.  Jasper  had  flown  faster  than 
usual  that  day,  because  he  had  such  inter- 
esting news.  "Your  picture,"  he  told 
Brownie,  "is  in  the  photographer's  win- 
dow, way  over  in  the  town  where  Farmer 
Green  goes  sometimes." 


88  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

Brownie  Beaver  gave  Jasper  a  quick 
look. 

"I've  often  suspected,"  he  said,  "that 
you  don't  always  tell  me  the  truth.  And 
now  I  know  it.  I've  never  been  to  the 
photographer's  in  my  life.  So  how  could 
he  have  my  picture,  I  should  like  to 
know?" 

"But  you  don't  have  to  go  to  the  photog- 
rapher's to  have  your  picture  taken,"  Jas- 
per Jay  retorted.  l  i  Why  couldn  't  the  pho- 
tographer come  to  you?" 

"I  suppose  he  could,"  Brownie  Beaver 
said.  "But  he's  never  been  here." 

Jasper  Jay  gave  one  of  his  loud  laughs. 

"That "    he    said— "that    is    just 

where  you  are  mistaken.  And  when  I  ex- 
plain how  I  came  by  this  news,  maybe 
you'll  believe  me. 

"Tommy  Fox  told  it  to  me,"  Jasper 
went  on,  "and  old  dog  Spot  told  it  to  him. 


JASPER  JAY'S  STORY         89 

Everybody  knows  that  old  Spot  sometimes 
goes  to  town  with  his  master.  They  were 
there  yesterday.  And  Spot  saw  your  pic- 
ture himself.  What's  more,  he  heard  the 
photographer  tell  Farmer  Green  that  he 
came  up  here  almost  a  week  ago,  hid  his 
camera  in  some  bushes,  and  set  a  flash- 
light near  a  half -gnawed  tree.  And  when 
you  started  to  work  on  the  tree  that  night 
you  brushed  against  a  wire,  and  the  flash- 
light flared  up,  and  the  camera  took  your 
picture  before  you  could  jump  away.  .  .  . 
Now  what  do  you  say?"  Jasper  Jay  de- 
manded. "Now  do  you  think  I'm  telling 
you  the  truth?" 

Brownie  Beaver  was  so  surprised  that 
it  was  several  minutes  before  he  could 
speak.  Then  he  said : 

"Grandaddy  Beaver  was  right.  It 
wasn't  a  gun.  I  was  just  having  my  pic- 
ture taken."  Brownie  was  actually 


90  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

pleased,  because  he  knew  he  was  the  only 
person  in  his  village  that  had  ever  had 
such  a  thing  happen  to  him. 

After  that  he  was  ready  to  believe  every- 
thing Jasper  Jay  told  him.  So  Jasper  re- 
lated some  wonderful  news.  And  it  would 
hardly  be  fair  for  anyone  not  present  at 
the  time  to  say  that  it  wasn't  perfectly 
true — every  word  of  it. 


XVI 
LOOKING  PLEASANT 

AFTER  Jasper  Jay  left  Brownie  Beaver,  on 
that  day  when  Jasper  told  Brownie  that 
the  photographer  had  made  a  flash- 
light picture  of  him,  Brownie  could 
hardly  wait  for  it  to  grow  dark.  He  had 
made  up  his  mind  that  he  would  go  back  to 
that  same  tree,  which  was  still  not  quite 
gnawed  through;  and  he  hoped  that  he 
would  succeed  in  having  his  picture  taken 
again.  Like  many  other  people,  Brownie 
Beaver  felt  that  he  could  not  have  too 
much  of  a  good  thing. 

There  was  another  reason,  too,  for  his 
going  back  to  the  tree.    If  the  light  flared 

91 


92  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

again  and  the  click  sounded  in  the  bushes, 
Brownie  intended  to  go  right  into  the 
thicket  and  get  his  picture  before  anybody 
else  could  carry  it  away  with  him.  (You 
can  understand  how  little  he  understood 
about  taking  photographs.) 

Well,  the  "dark  found  Brownie  back  at 
the  tree  once  more.  And  he  began  once 
more  to  gnaw  at  it.  He  tried  to  look  pleas- 
ant, too,  because  he  had  heard  that  that 
was  the  way  one  should  look  when  having 
his  picture  taken. 

He  found  it  rather  difficult,  gnawing 
chips  out  of  the  tree  and  smiling  at  the 
same  time.  But  he  was  an  earnest  young- 
ster and  he  did  the  best  he  could. 

Brownie  Beaver  kept  wishing  the  flash- 
light would  go  off,  because — what  with 
smiling  and  gnawing — his  face  began  to 
ache.  But  no  glare  of  light  broke  through 
the  darkness. 


LOOKING  PLEASANT          93 

It  was  not  long  before  Brownie  had 
gnawed  away  so  many  chips  that  the  tree 
began  to  nod  its  head  further  and  further 
toward  the  ground.  And  Brownie  wished 
that  the  flash-light  would  hurry  and  go  on2 
before  the  tree  fell. 

But  there  was  not  even  the  faintest 
flicker  of  light.  It  was  most  annoying. 
And  Brownie  was  so  disappointed  that  .'or 
once  he  forgot  to  be  careful  when  he  was 
cutting  down  a  tree.  He  kept  his  eyes  on 
the  bushes  all  the  time,  instead  of  on  the 
tree — as  he  should  have  done.  And  all  the 
time  the  tree  leaned  more  and  more. 

At  last  there  was  a  snap!  Brownie 
Beaver  should  have  known  what  that 
meant.  But  he  was  so  eager  to  have  his 
picture  taken  that  he  mistook  the  snap 
for  the  click  that  he  hac  irst  heard  almost 
a  week  before. 

He  thought  it  must  be  the  click  of  a  cam- 


94  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

era  hidden  in  the  bushes.  And  he  stood 
very  still  and  looked  extremely  pleasant. 
Now,  Brownie  Beaver  should  have 
known  better.  But  like  most  people,  for 
once  he  made  a  mistake.  What  he  really 
heard  was  the  tree  snapping.  And  before 
he  could  jump  out  of  the  way  the  tree  came 
crashing  down  upon  him  and  pinned  him 
fast  to  the  ground.  He  saw  a  flash  of  light, 
to  be  sure,  and  a  good  many  stars.  But 
all  that  only  came  from  the  knock  on  his 
head  which  the  tree  gave  him. 


XVII 
BROWNIE  ESCAPES 

the  tree  crashed  down  upon 
Brownie  Beaver  and  held  him  fast,  it  was 
some  time  before  he  came  to  his  senses. 
Then  he  did  not  know,  at  first,  where  he 
was  nor  what  had  happened  to  him.  But 
at  last  he  remembered  that  he  had  been 
cutting  down  a  tree  not  far  from  the  pond 
and  he  saw  that  it  must  have  fallen  upon 
him. 

Of  course,  the  first  thing  that  occurred 
to  him  was  to  call  for  help.  But  just  as 
he  opened  his  mouth  to  shout,  another 
thought  came  into  his  head.  Perhaps 
some  man  might  hear  him — or  a  bear! 

95 


96  BROWNIE  BEAVEE 

And  Brownie  Beaver  closed  his  mouth  as 
quickly  as  he  had  opened  it. 

Then  he  tried  to  squirm  from  under  the 
tree-trunk.  But  he  couldn't  move  him- 
self at  all.  Next  he  tried  to  push  the  tree 
away  from  him.  But  he  couldn 't  move  the 
tree  either. 

For  a  long  while  Brownie  Beaver  strug- 
gled, first  at  one  impossible  thing,  and 
then  at  the  other.  And  all  the  time  the 
tree  seemed  to  grow  heavier  and  heavier. 

Finally,  Brownie  stopped  trying  to  get 
free  and  began  to  feel  hungry. 

You  can  see  that  he  must  have  been  wor- 
ried, because  there  was  the  tree,  with 
plenty  of  bark  on  it  which  he  could  eat. 
But  he  never  noticed  it  for  a  long  time. 

At  last,  however,  he  happened  to  remem- 
ber that  in  the  beginning  he  had  started  to 
cut  down  that  very  tree  so  he  could  reach 
the  bark  and  eat  it. 


Brownie  Tried  to  Push  the  Tree  Away  From  Him 


BROWNIE  ESCAPES  97 

Then  Brownie  Beaver  had  a  good  meal. 
And  just  as  he  finished  eating,  another 
thought  came  into  his  head.  Why 
shouldn't  lie  gnaw  right  through  the  tree? 

Since  there  seemed  to  be  no  answer  to 
that  question,  he  began  to  gnaw  big  chips 
out  of  the  wood.  And  in  a  surprisingly 
short  time  he  had  cut  the  tree  apart  just 
where  it  pressed  upon  him. 

Then,  of  course,  all  he  had  to  do  was  to 
get  up  and  walk  away. 

When  he  reached  the  village  he  found 
that  all  his  neighbors  had  been  looking 
everywhere  for  him. 

"That  is,"  Grandaddy  Beaver  ex- 
plained, "we  looked  everywhere  except 
near  the  tree  where  you  had  that  adven- 
ture a  few  nights  ago.  I  said  you  wouldn  't 
be  there,  for  I  advised  you  to  keep  away 
from  that  spot,  as  you  will  recall." 

Now,   Brownie   Beaver   said   nothing 


98  BROWNIE  BEAVER 

more.  He  knew  that  it  was  an  unheard-of 
thing  for  one  of  the  Beaver  family  to  be 
caught  by  a  falling  tree.  To  have  every- 
one know  what  had  happened  to  him 
would  be  a  good  deal  like  a  disgrace. 

But  there  are  plenty  of  people  who 
would  think  they  had  done  something 
quite  clever  if  they  had  gnawed  through  a 
tree  with  their  teeth — though  that  was 
something  that  never  once  entered 
Brownie  Beaver's  head. 


XVIII 
MR.  FROG'S  QUESTION 

"WHY  don't  you  get  some  new  clothes'?" 

It  was  Mr.  Frog  that  asked  the  ques- 
tion; and  he  asked  it  of  Brownie  Beaver, 
who  was  at  work  on  top  of  his  house.  Mr. 
Frog  had  been  hiding  among  the  lily-pads, 
watching  Brownie.  But  Brownie  hadn't 
noticed  him  until  he  stuck  his  head  out  of 
the  water  and  spoke. 

At  first  Mr.  Frog's  question  made 
Brownie  a  bit  peevish. 

"What's  the  matter  with  my  clothes'?" 
he  asked  hotly. 

"There's  nothing  the  matter  with  them 
— nothing  at  all,"  said  Mr.  Frog — "except 

99 


100          BROWNIE  BEAVER 

that  they  are  not  as  becoming  to  you  as 
they  might  be.  Of  course,"  he  added,  as 
he  saw  that  Brownie  Beaver  was  frown- 
ing, "you  look  handsome  in  them.  But 
you  Ve  no  idea  how  you'd  look  in  clothes  of 
my  making." 

Brownie  Beaver  felt  more  agreeable 
as  soon  as  Mr.  Frog  had  told  him  what  he 
meant. 

"Do  you  make  clothes?"  he  inquired. 

"  I  'm  a  tailor, ' '  Mr.  Frog  replied.  "  An  i 
I've  just  opened  a  shop  at  the  upper  end 
of  the  pond." 

"What's  the  matter  with  my  tail?" 
Brownie  snapped.  He  was  angry  again. 

Then  Mr.  Frog  explained  that  a  tailor 
made  suits. 

"We've  nothing  to  do  with  tails/'  he 
said — "unless  it's  coat-tails." 

"What  about  cattails  ?"  Brownie  asked. 
"You're  pretty  close  to  some  right  now. 


MR.  FROG'S  QUESTION      101 

So  you  can  hardly  say  you  have  nothing 
to  do  with  them.'9 

Mr.  Frog  smiled. 

"I  see  you're  a  joker,"  he  said.  "And 
it  really  seems  a  pity,"  he  went  on,  "that 
a  bright  young  fellow  like  you  shouldn't 
wear  the  finest  clothes  to  be  had  anywhere. 
If  you'll  come  to  my  shop  I'll  make  you  a 
suit  such  as  you  never  saw  before  in  all 
your  life." 

"I'll  come !"  Brownie  Beaver  promised. 
"I'll  be  there  at  sunset." 

And  he  went.  Mr.  Frog  was  waiting  for 
him,  with  a  broad  smile  on  his  face.  Any 
smile  of  his  just  had  to  be  broad,  because 
he  had  such  a  wide  mouth. 

' '  Come  right  in ! "  Mr.  Frog  said.  "  I  '11 
measure  you  at  once."  So  Brownie 
Beaver  stepped  inside  Mr.  Frog's  shop  to 
be  measured  for  his  new  suit. 

It  was  all  over  in  a  few  minutes.    Mr. 


102          BROWNIE  BEAVER 

Frog  scratched  some  figures  on  a  flat 
stone.  And  then  he  went  into  the  back 
room  of  his  shop. 

He  stayed  there  a  long  time.  And  when 
he  came  into  the  front  port  again  he  found 
Brownie  Beaver  still  there. 

"What  are  you  waiting  for?"  Mr.  Frog 
asked.  He  seemed  surprised  that  Brownie 
had  not  left. 

"I'm  waiting  for  my  suit,  of  course," 
Brownie  Beaver  said. 

"Oh!  That  won't  be  ready  for  three 
days,"  Mr.  Frog  told  him.  "I  have  to 
make  it,  you  know." 

Brownie  thought  that  Mr.  Frog  must  be 
a  slow  worker ;  and  he  told  him  as  much. 

But  Mr.  Frog  did  not  agree  with  him. 

"  I  'm  very  spry ! "  he  claimed.  ' l  On  the 
jump  every  minute!" 

As  Brownie  started  away,  Mr.  Frog 
called  him  back. 


MR.  FROG'S  QUESTION      103 

"I'd  get  a  new  hat  if  I  were  you,"  he 
suggested. 

" What's  the  matter  with  this  hat?" 
Brownie  wanted  to  know.  " It's  a  beaver 
hat — one  my  great-grandfather  used  to 
wear.  It 's  been  in  our  family  a  good  many 
years  and  I'd  hate  to  part  with  it." 

"You  needn't  part  with  it,"  Mr.  Frog 
said  pleasantly.  "Just  don't  wear  it — 
that's  all !  For  it  won't  look  well  with  the 
clothes  I'm  going  to  make  for  you." 

Then  Brownie  Beaver  moved  away  once 
more.  And  again  Mr.  Frog  stopped  him. 

"I'd  buy  a  collar  if  I  were  you,"  he 
said. 

"What's  the  matter  with  this  necker- 
chief1?" Brownie  Beaver  demanded.  "It 
belonged  to  my  great-grandmother." 

"Then  I'd  be  careful  of  it  if  I  were 
you,"  Mr.  Frog  told  him.  "And  please 
get  a  stiff  white  collar  to  wear." 


104          BROWNIE  BEAVER 

"Won't  it  get  limp  in  the  water?" 
Brownie  asked,  doubtfully. 

"Get  a  celluloid  one,  of  course,"  Mr. 
Frog  replied.  "That's  the  only  kind  of 
collar  you  ought  to  wear." 

So  Brownie  Beaver  left  the  tailor-shop. 
And  he  was  feeling  quite  unhappy.  He 
had  always  been  satisfied  with  his  clothes. 
But  now  he  began  to  dislike  everything  he 
had  on.  And  he  could  hardly  wait  for 
three  days  to  pass,  he  was  in  such  a  hurry 
for  Mr.  Frog  to  finish  his  new  suit. 


XIX 

THE  NEW  SUIT 

THREE  days  had  passed.  And  as  soon  as 
he  had  finished  his  breakfast  Brownie 
Beaver  hastened  to  the  tailor-shop  of  Mr. 
Frog,  who  had  been  making  him  a  suit  of 
clothes. 

Much  to  Brownie's  disappointment,  he 
found  that  Mr.  Frog's  door  was  locked. 
But  he  sat  down  on  the  doorstep  and 
waited  a  long  time.  And  at  last  Mr.  Frog 
appeared. 

After  bidding  Brownie  Beaver  good- 
morning,  Mr.  Frog  yawned  widely,  re- 
marking that  he  had  been  out  late  the 
night  before,  "at  a  singing-party,"  he 

105 


106          BROWNIE  BEAVER 

said.  * '  What  can  I  do  for  you  ?  "  he  asked 
Brownie  Beaver. 

"You  can  let  me  have  my  new  suit  of 
clothes,"  Brownie  told  him. 

"You  must  be  mistaken,"  Mr.  Frog  re- 
plied. "I  don't  remember  you.  I'm  not 
making  any  suit  for  you." 

At  that  Brownie  Beaver  became  much 
excited. 

"Why "  he  exclaimed — "I  was  here 

three  days  ago  and  you  measured  me.  .  .  . 
Don't  you  know  me  now?"  he  asked. 

"Sorry  to  say  I  don't,"  was  Mr.  Frog's 
answer. 

Brownie  Beaver  was  desperate.  He 
had  looked  forward  eagerly  to  having  his 
new  suit.  And  he  wanted  it  at  once. 

"You  advised  me  to  get  a  new  hat  and 
a  collar,"  Brownie  reminded  him. 

Mr.  Frog  smiled. 

"Ah!    That's  it!"  he  cried.    "You're 


THE  NEW  SUIT  107 

wearing  them  now;  and  it's  no  wonder  I 
didn't  recognize  you.  You  look  ten  years 
younger." 

Brownie  Beaver  was  puzzled. 

"I'm  not  ten  yet,"  he  said.  "So  if  I 
look  ten  years  younger,  I  must  appear 
very  young  indeed." 

"The  new  clothes  will  fix  that,"  Mr. 
Frog  assured  him. 

"But  you  just  told  me  you  were  not 
making  a  suit  for  me,"  said  Brownie. 

"Quite  true,  too!"  answered  Mr.  Frog 
— ' i  because  it 's  all  finished.  S  o,  of  course, 
I  'm  not  making  it  now. ' ' 

They  had  stepped  inside  the  shop.  And 
Mr.  Frog  carefully  took  some  garments  off 
a  peg  and  spread  them  before  Brownie 
Beaver. 

"There!"  he  said  with  an  air  of  pride. 
"The  finest  suit  you  ever  saw!" 

"I'll  slip  it  on,"  said  Brownie. 


108          BROWNIE  BEAVER 

"Oh!  I  wouldn't  do  that!"  Mr.  Frog 
told  him.  1 1  You  might  stretch  it . " 

But  nothing  could  have  kept  Brownie 
Beaver  out  of  his  new  suit.  He  scrambled 
into  it  quickly,  while  the  tailor  stood  by 
with  a  worried  look  upon  his  face. 

"The  coat  seems  to  be  all  right, " 
Brownie  remarked.  "But  there's  some- 
thing wrong  with  the  trousers.  I  can't  see 
my  feet!"  He  bent  over  and  gazed  down 
where  his  feet  ought  to  have  been.  But 
they  had  vanished.  And  an  end  of  each 
trouser-leg  trailed  on  the  floor.  "These 
trousers  are  too  long!"  Brownie  declared. 

"Then  you  stretched  them,  putting 
them  on, ' '  Mr.  Frog  said.  ' ' 1  warned  you, 
you  know." 

"I  was  very  careful,"  Brownie  said. 
"I'm  sure  it  can't  be  that." 

"Then  your  legs  are  too  short,"  Mr. 
Frog  told  him  glibly.  "They  look  to  me 


s 

THE  NEW  SUIT  109 

to  be  much  shorter  than  they  were  when  I 
measured  you. " 

"My  legs "  Brownie  Beaver  ex- 
claimed— "my  legs  are  exactly  the  same 
length  they  were  three  days  ago !  You  Ve 
made  a  mistake,  Mr.  Frog.  That's  what's 
the  matter  with  these  trousers !" 

But  Mr.  Frog  shook  his  head. 

"I  made  them  according  to  your  meas- 
urements," he  insisted. 

"Let  me  see  your  figures!"  Brownie 
Beaver  cried. 

But  Mr.  Frog  shook  his  head  again. 

"I  don't  do  business  that  way,"  he  ex- 
plained. "As  soon  as  I've  finished  a  suit 
I  throw  away  the  stone  on  which  I've  writ- 
ten the  measurements.  It  saves  trouble, 
if  there's  any  complaint  afterwards." 

1 '  Well ! ' '  said  Brownie.  ' '  What  can  we 
do  about  this?  I  can't  wear  the  trousers 
as  they  are." 


110         BROWNIE  BEAVER 

"You'll  have  to  get  your  legs 
stretched,"  Mr.  Frog  told  him.  "  Just  tie 
a  stone  to  each  foot  and  wear  the  trousers 
for  a  few  days.  As  soon  as  you  see  your 
feet,  take  off  the  stones.  .  .  .  It's  simple 
enough. "  He  helped  tie  some  heavy  stones 
to  Brownie's  feet.  And  then  Brownie 
swam  away. 

Now,  swimming  with  your  feet  weighted 
like  that  is  no  easy  matter.  But 
Brownie  managed  to  reach  home.  He 
stayed  there,  too,  for  the  rest  of  the  day, 
because  it  was  hard  for  him  to  move  about. 
And  since  he  had  nothing  else  to  do,  he 
went  to  sleep. 

When  he  awoke,  about  an  hour  before 
sunset,  he  couldn't  think  at  first  what 
made  his  feet  feel  so  heavy.  He  thought 
he  must  be  ill — until  he  remembered  about 
the  stones  being  tied  to  his  feet. 

Then  he  looked  down.    And  to  his  great 


THE  NEW  SUIT  111 

surprise  and  joy  there  were  his  feet  stick- 
ing out  of  his  trousers,  just  as  they  ought 
to  stick  out ! 

Brownie  untied  the  stones.  He  had  not 
supposed  his  legs  would  stretch  so  quickly 
as  that.  And  he  told  himself  that  Mr. 
Frog  was  a  good  tailor.  He  certainly 
knew  his  business. 

Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  Mr.  Frog  was 
a  very  careless  person.  He  had  thrown 
away  Brownie's  measurements  before  he 
made  his  clothes,  instead  of  afterwards. 
And  he  had  made  the  new  suit  entirely  by 
guesswork.  It  was  only  natural  that  he 
would  make  some  mistake ;  and  so  he  had 
cut  the  trousers  entirely  too  long. 

When  he  discovered  that,  he  wanted  to 
get  Brownie  out  of  his  shop.  And  what 
happened  next  was  simply  this:  After 
Brownie's  trousers  were  wet  in  the  pond, 
they  dried  while  he  was  sleeping.  And 


112          BROWNIE  BEAVER 

while  they  were  drying  they  were  shrink- 
ing at  the  same  time. 

Though  Brownie  Beaver  didn't  know 
it,  his  legs  had  not  stretched  at  all.  They 
were  exactly  the  same  length  they  had  al- 
ways been. 


THE  END 


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